 |  | Relentless action score which tips its hat to its precedessors |  |
It's interesting how the careers of Brian Tyler and the late Jerry Goldsmith have dovetailed: Tyler replaced Goldsmith on Timeline in 2003, and is scoring the fourth Rambo movie in a series which Goldsmith made his own. On Alien vs. Predator: Requiem, Tyler is not only following in the footsteps of Goldsmith, but also James Horner, Elliot Goldenthal and Alan Silvestri, each of whom left an indelible musical mark on their respective entries into the franchises. What's most impressive about this score is how Tyler has managed to pay homage to all the composers who preceded him by incorporating some of their compositional stylistics into his own music, while still retaining a great deal of his own voice throughout the score. This tightrope must have been a difficult one to walk, but he has succeeded admirably. The film itself was a critical and commercial disaster: with an unknown cast, debutante directors (Greg Strause and Colin Strause), and hackneyed plot involving aliens and predators descending on small-town America to wreak havoc, really the only thing to concentrate on is the quality of Tyler's music. Tyler doesn't waste any time setting his stall out, going for the jugular from the outset. The opening "Alien vs. Predator - Requiem" is a massive collision of Goldenthal and Gustav Holst, with the famous ostinato overlaid with throbbing, apocalyptic brass. Elsewhere, the creeping, metallic, sub-industrial chords which so typified James Horner's Alien music can be heard in the militaristic beginning to the "Opening Titles", which effortlessly segues into a neat twist the icy isolation of Goldsmith's classic original score. Similarly, the instantly-recognizable percussion elements, chord progressions and rhythmic devices from Alan Silvestri's Predator scores are immediately noticable in cues such as "Skinned and Hanged". The score's many action cues, such as the two "National Guard" tracks, "Power Struggle" and the angry, vicious "Searching the Poolhouse" are wholly exciting. However, by far the most impressive piece on the album is the 7½-minute "Decimation Proclamation", a loud, cacophonous, relentless, utterly thrilling action set piece which is amongst the most impressive single cues of Tyler's entire career. It nods it's head to `Bishop's Countdown' and `Futile Escape', but embraces a broader orchestral palette, resulting in a singularly stunning piece through-composed action music. If one was to make one criticism of the album it's that it lasts too long - even with score as good as this, 77 minutes of relentlessly pounding action music can tax even the most hardy listener. A little bit of judicious pruning could have made a good score better; nevertheless, in purely musical terms, this is a winner.
September 26, 2008I think it needs to be said, both for this soundtrack, and for this movie, that it was leaps ahead of its predecessor. Both get a lot of flack for riffing on the movies that spawned them and bringing back similar motifs and moments, but neither seems to get the appreciation for taking the series back to their roots. I was overjoyed sitting in the theater, having just sat through the first Predator again the night before, and hearing loving adaptations of Silvestri and Horner's themes.
The first film was reviled for butchering it's source material, but this one seems to be hated because it stayed too close. What do you people really want? Any movie with the word 'versus' in the title is already advertising itself as action slugfest and hardly a landmark of mood or substance. However, AVPR seemed to be reaching out for both despite being trapped in the wake of its predecessor and movie executives.Brian Tyler scored a rollicking, action packed piece of soundtrack, that while very busy, I found very well composed. It brings a sense of tactile urgency to the action, like two great cataclysms colliding with one another. The score is loud, beastly and fast. It's also very long, which is a good thing in my book, and the tracks are out of order on this CD, which is unfortunate.
Brian Tyler can score my monster on monster action movies any day of the week. I'm eagerly awaiting his score for Rambo. I think this film and its soundtrack will come into its own after a few years pass and the hate dies down. Hell, I've even managed to sit through the first AVP a second time without totally hating it, though I laugh with great abandon throughout. It was on par with, if not more entertaining and brisker, than Predator 2 and far more in line with the tone of both series than Alien Resurrection.
January 21, 2008 | | A Top Notch Action Slam in the World of AVP! | |
Brian Tyler is one of the most talented young composers of our generation. He has succesfully worked his way to the AA list of modern talent, and is composing some of the most technically advanced music of our time. Requiem is noisy, but wonderfully so. Brian doesn't hit you over the head with pounding synths and drum loops, he orchestrates VERY advanced action sequences and blends them with very listenable suspense tracks. If you enjoyed Silvestri's work on "Predator" this soundtrack is sure to please you.
December 30, 2007 | | Blatantly rips off the classic Silvestri and Horner scores | |
Like the movie itself, this score is a hack job ripoff of the classic Alien and Predator films from which it miserably aspires to be. Throughout we hear samples lifted from James Horner's score to Aliens: The Deluxe Edition on tracks like "Outnumbered" and on tracks like "Skinned and Hanged" we hear Alan Silvestri's percussion and drumbeats taken directly from his original groundbreaking score to Predator and Predator 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. "Decimation Procalmation" sounds just like a mild reworking of Horner's unforgettable cue for "Bishop's Countdown" from Aliens as does "Coprocloakia" which sounds almost note-for-note like a ripoff of "Sub-Level 3" from Aliens. You can even hear the strings "plucking" away to build suspense as though the orchestrations were just sampled from Horner's score then at about the two-minute mark you can hear Silvestri's theme from Predator for "Blaine's Death" come in with just a few subtle note changes. Listen to them back-to-back, it's almost verbatim! These guys should be getting paid royalties for this. It's as though the film had first been temp-tracked with selections from the original Alien and Predator scores and then the Strause Brothers told Brian Tyler to make his score sound just like them by changing a few simple notes around here and there. So Brian Tyler dropped his samples into the meat grinder and cooked up a score that sounds like it was composed in a blender. There are no original signature themes. It's one thing to pay homage to the original material and another to completely hack it up which is what both the film and the score manage to do well. A good composer is like a good director, an artist and a visionary who will establish himself by making an impression and leaving his signature mark and themes on the final piece. A good soundtrack should enhance the visuals and more often than not should elevate the film experience to something even greater and should be one of the most memorable characterizations. If the music is still playing in your head long after you've left the theater it has done its job. There is nothing memorable about this score at all. It's nothing more than canned filler music and is creatively uninspired. It just makes me want to reach for my original Alien and Predator soundtracks and play them instead.
December 25, 2007A Great score. Many are underwellmed because of its unoriginal sets but i think it only adds to the movie and the Alien and Predator franchise. It has parts from both films and puts them together for one great film soundtrack. The film was a knock-out by itself and this only adds to it.
December 25, 2007More reviews at Amazon.com ...
